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Michael Brooke

Michael Brooke is a freelance writer specialising in British and central/eastern European cinema. A regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine, he spent nearly a decade at the BFI (2002-11), where he helped create BFI Screenonline and BFI InView, produced the BFI’s internationally acclaimed DVD compilations of short films by the Quay Brothers and Jan Švankmajer and co-produced the Blu-ray edition of Švankmajer’s Alice. He has written numerous booklet essays for BFI DVD Publishing, Second Run and Arrow Academy, and chapters for the books Polish Cinema Now! (2010), Shadows of Progress (2010), 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock (2012) and Trzynasty miesiąc. Kino Braci Quay (2010). A native Londoner, he now lives in Worthing with his family and chickens.

Michael Brooke remembers the towering Polish director of Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds, The Promised Land, Man of Iron, Danton and Katyń – ”one of the key custodians of his country’s conscience”, who has died at the age of 90.

One of the greatest modern composers, American minimalist Philip Glass has also written countless scores for films, including Candyman, The Truman Show and The Hours. Here are 10 for the desert island.